999: The Search For June
by Dane Kemp
Summary: The fic takes place after the game, so there are some spoilers. I tried to make this close to Kotaro Uchikoshi's answers on the main 999 site. This is a CloverXJunpei fanfic. Please R/R!
1. Prologue: After the Escape

I looked at the sun. Sure was bright after being cooped up in that ship so long. After a while I looked back at the Gigantic, but the sight that beheld me looked...different. Then it hit me. I swore.

"We were in Building Q the whole time?!" I cursed again. However, the relief of being out in the air again quickly rushed in and extinguished my frustration. I looked down. There were more stairs, going down this time, and at the bottom, an SUV. I looked at Seven. There was NO WAY they could ever get him in there. But they would deal with that later. I heard something else. The bracelets. They were lying on the floor. I picked one up and opened the back. There was only a chip, like what you would find in an ATM card. Nothing in the bracelet remotely looked like a detonator.

"There was no detonator," I heard a voice say. It sounded like Akane's voice. Figures.

"Akane..."

"Jumpy..."

Heh, must be pretty crazy about a girl if you think you can hear her voice in the wind... I put the bracelet in my pocket as a souvenir, then pointed at the SUV.

"There's a rig down there, let's go!" Before I went I looked at the horizon. There was a cloud of dust. Santa...no…Aoi's vehicle. If they hurried we could make it! I ran as fast as I could, keeping an eye on the vehicle as I ran. I got to the bottom of the stairs and took off towards the SUV. When I got there I pulled the door open to hear the sound of the beeping a car makes when a key is in the ignition. I smiled.

"'Kay, everyone, get in!" I yelled. Clover hopped in the driver's seat.

"I'll drive!"

Lotus hopped in the passenger's seat.

"Come on guys, we gotta hurry." She shouted. Seven and I looked at each other, both thinking "oh-no," but we hopped in anyway. Snake came in behind us. As soon as the door slammed shut Clover turned the key to make the engine roar to life. Without waiting for us to get ready, or for the engine to warm-up, she pressed on the gas. Hard. We lurched and bumped. However, for going however fast we were going the SUV handled bumps like they were little rocks.

"THIS IS SOOOO AWESOME! Driving is so great when there's nothing around."

"There's still some things I don't get...Like why Ace...or Gentarou Hongou..why did he create the nonary project? Anybody have any ideas?"

Seven spoke up.

"Hmph, why don't you just ask him yourself? He IS in the trunk." That was news.

"He is?"

"Yeah, I opened the trunk earlier and there he was, tied and gagged. He wasn't going anywhere." That was news to me. I turned around and looked over the seat. There he was, bound and gagged, no emotion, like he had given up on life. I reached over and ripped the tape off. He said nothing for a few minutes, then hesitantly spoke.

"I...I only wanted to see the faces. Human faces. I thought...I thought that if I could gain the ability to access the morphic fieldset, then perhaps I could see faces...By peering into people's minds, you could understand how they were processing the expressions of others."

I was enraged.

"That's it?!"

"Yes, if you want to put it simply. But if you are looking for a more philosophical answer, I can supply that as well. You see, the collective consciousness - " I cut him off while putting the tape back on.

"I think that's enough info outta you."

Clover spoke up.

"So what's your second question?" As I was thinking of an answer to Clover's question, Lotus spoke up.

"You said there were some _things_ you didn't get, didn't you?" She asked, and suddenly I remembered.

"My next question doesn't really have anything to do with you two. This is for you, Seven. It's about the whole Alice thing. What's the deal with that?" Seven thought a moment, then spoke up.

"Well...See, 9 years ago, after I escaped from the Gigantic...I kept goin' after Hongou on my own, hopin' I'd catch him when he finally slipped up. During the course of my investigations, I learned a lot more about the Gigantic. I also found out about Gordain and Alice." I looked at him.

"You're not really answering my question...Was there actually a girl who wouldn't melt at room temperature?" I asked, but Hongou made sounds like he wanted to say something. I took the tape off.

"What?"

"Alice doesn't exist. 9 years ago I found Alice's coffin behind the library on the bottom deck. There was nothing in it but the root of a peculiar plant. My research determined that it was..." He went on about how he became the CEO of Cradle pharmaceutical.

I put the tape back on to save us from a several hour story. The rest of my questions can wait. For now, I decided to enjoy the ride... And the hardest question, yet the one that's the most important, has to do with June and Akane...9 years ago she died in the incinerator on the Gigantic. But...She's still alive, as June. How? Was it because I tapped into the morphic fieldset, saving her 9 years ago?

Okay...Let's say that does make some kind of insane sense...If I did that, then...How do I make sense of what Seven remembers? Snake's made sense...he was blind. He couldn't have seen her body anyway. But Seven...He said he was sure he saw it. Does that mean there's some kind of...historical discrepancy? Or...wait. Maybe that's not it at all... There is one other logical explanation...

Was what you told me the truth Seven? You look...satisfied. No. No way... He couldn't- Eh, I'd figure that out later. As we went along I noticed a scantily clad woman with a nice tan trying to hitchhike. I never thought about it at the time, but I hoped it would become clearer as I went along.

* * *

><p><strong>Me: please note that most of this is basically a transcript of the ending of the game. This is on purpose to set the scene for the actual story.<strong>

**Junpei: The story is pretty cool, if I do say so myself.**

**Me: But that's only cause you're the main character.**

**Junpei: That's irrelevant.**


	2. Confusion

It took us several hours to get to the nearest town. By that time we had lost Aoi's vehicle. Truth was, his vehicle was a whole lot faster than ours. It had gotten late by the time we got there and we just wanted to sleep. This led to a problem. Since we were all kidnapped, none of us had money, and even if we had, we didn't have AMERICAN money. This was a small problem. However, we found a nice elderly farming couple outside of town that allowed us to sleep at their place for the night.

The girls got a nice room to themselves, but us boys had to sleep in the barn. Thankfully there were no animals, and the smell had left in the years of it being animal-less. Since we couldn't trust Hongou we took him with us into the barn, and one of us was to watch him throughout the night. Snake was disqualified immediately as Hongou could get past his handicap. That left me and Seven. We Rock, Paper, Scissored who would get first watch. It happened to be me.

It makes it easier anyway; don't have to wake up again in the middle of the night. Snake and Seven bundled up and hunkered down to sleep. I sat and watched Hongou. Chances were, he wouldn't be able to get out, but we still couldn't trust him. I sat there for hours-watching, waiting. Finally at the designated time Seven told me to get him up I got up and shook him. He didn't even stir. I looked up at Hongou, who had his eyes closed, probably sleeping. I shook Seven again. Again, he did nothing. I groaned. I pushed him and he rolled. He sat up.

"Oh, sorry Junpei, it's been a while since I got a good night's sleep." I nodded, understanding as I felt the same. Seven sat up and rubbed his eyes.  
>"Okay, you can sleep now, I'll take over." He got up and moved towards Hongou. I got into the bed that was previously occupied by Seven. It was still warm, and before I drifted off I thought of Akane and Aoi. Why would they go to such lengths? Why did they choose me? But I was so tired these thoughts didn't linger long and I fell fast asleep.<br>I woke up feeling slightly more refreshed than usual. I looked at Seven and Hongou and nodded, then looked at Snake. He was still sleeping there, almost peacefully. I looked back at Seven. He had heard me moving and was looking at me. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up. I stretched and rubbed my eyes.

"You were out as soon as you hit the pillow," he said quietly, yet in awe. I chuckled.

"My parents always said I was like that." I looked at Hongou. His eyes were still closed. I looked back at Seven. "Did you have any problems with him?"

"Nope. He did open his eyes once and wiggled a little, but it seemed half-hearted." I nodded. Hongou seemed to have lost his will to fight. Seven got up. Snake stirred, then sat up.

"Did you guys have a nice night?" He asked, looking around, wondering where we were. I went up next to him.

"Yeah. And Hongou hasn't really tried to escape. It's nice, really." Snake nodded, then cocked his head, hearing something. I heard something as well. The door burst open.

"Guys! Breakfast!" An excited Clover yelled out. Snake smiled.

"Ah, thank you Clover," said Snake. "And did you have a nice night?" Clover beamed.

"Yep! It was great. Lotus snored a little though." She looked a little disappointed. I decided to change the subject.

"Come on, guy….food!" I was hungry, I hadn't eaten since 5 on the night I got kidnapped. My stomach growled.

"Jeez, Junpei, you've got a lion in your stomach," Clover said, smiling teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah, let's just go." I looked at Seven. He nodded as if to say "go on without me." I nodded. "I'll be back." I turned toward Snake and Clover to see Clover helping her brother out of bed. We hurried to the kitchen and sat down at the table, smelling the bacon, eggs and sausage. That was nice, but I was used to the nice breakfasts at home; Miso soup and Tamagoyaki. Oh, well, just for today, I hoped...

We ate in silence. When I was done I went back to the "Boy's Room" and switched off with Seven. He happily sauntered to the kitchen. I turned to Hongou. I watched him for about half an hour. He did nothing.

Finally Clover came in. She walked over and sat right by me, looking at Hongou.

"I'm just here to give Hongou his breakfast."

"Okay..." I spaced, June...Akane...Where are you? I...I miss you, and... and...

Clover took the tape off of Hongou's mouth and started feeding him as I stared into the distance.

"This isn't to humiliate ya or nothin'; we just want ya healthy for when we turn ya in." She giggled while he glared at her, then, when the hate subsided, went back to his normal "given-up-on-life" self. I still kept thinking about Akane. Why me? Why did she need me? There are 7 billion people in the world and 127,076,183 in Japan alone. It just didn't make sense. I'd think about it later. I then realized Clover had said something to me.

"Sorry...What?"

"You and June...er...Akane... you two seemed to be close." I nodded, remembering.

"We knew each other from 3rd grade, and maybe even before that. I don't really remember. We had fun times though..." I stopped reminiscing for a moment and looked at her. She looked at me eagerly, almost begging me to go on. I sighed.

"I'll finish later." She nodded, understanding. She put the plate and fork on the floor beside her and we sat in silence. Not even Hongou wanted to break the mood. After a while I looked around, got up, feeling like I had to say something. Clover beat me to it.

"Aaaand, the tape goes back on." She stuck the tape to Hongou's mouth. She got, up, dusted her butt, and picked up the plate and fork. She walked by me, and I felt a small longing. No, Junpei, your heart is Akane' still felt that tug though. I'd just have to ignore it. As she headed out the door, Clover turned and smiled at me. Automatically she blushed, and I with her. She turned toward the door, then stopped and turned back to Hongou.

"By the way, I spit in your food." Hongou shrugged indifferently.

"He's given up on life; I don't think he really cares right now." She sighed.

"Darn, I was hoping for a reaction."

"I know you were." She hurried out the door in a huff. I turned back to Ace.

"Well, come on, we have to get back home." And find Akane and Aoi, I added silently to myself. I helped him to his feet and walked him out of the room.

I walked into the kitchen to find the rest of the Nonary Gang there. They looked at me.

"What?" it then dawned on me why they were looking at me. "No...NO! I'm NOT going to be leader. Seven...You're a Detective...Or...Lotus...You're..." I struggled to find a word that wasn't 'old.' "Experienced..." They never budged. Finally Clover spoke up. "We decided you for multiple reasons. Seven, who you mentioned as a possible leader, he has amnesia. We can't trust him to be stable. He also isn't too br-...He isn't the sharpest tool in the shed." Seven yelled out a protest. Clover continued. "Lotus can't do it, though I can't remember why. I'm too young, my brother is blind, granted he _does_ have exceptional hearing, and Ace is the bad guy. That leaves..."She let me figure it out.

"Me." I wasn't too happy about that, but what could I do. They looked at me expectantly, waiting for my first call as leader. I sighed, giving in. "Is there a map somewhere?" Lotus pointed to the table.

"I asked if the people who let us stay here had one. This is the only one they had." I walked over to it. When I got there I scanned the map. It was a map of the entire state of Nevada and a little bit of California, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Oregon. Dang this state was big! He looked it over for a few minutes trying to think of where they were. The older gentleman, who was their host, pointed on an area of the map, near California.

"We're here. A little town called Gardinerville." His voice was raspy, and it surprised me. But I looked back at the map. Cool, we weren't as far or hopeless as I thought. I nodded to show I had seen it and looked to see if there was a road there. Sure enough, there was a road, heading south, then turned west, then south, and moved into California. It was perfect. In fact, it led us to Sacramento. We'd easily be able to get help there. I turned to the rest of the gang.

"I know where we're going!" They cheered. In that moment I felt like a rockstar. In that moment we all headed, single-file for the door. Snake reached the door first, then remembered something, as we all bumped into him. He turned around when we were done, and, using his exceptional hearing, turned to the couple. "Thank You," he said, then headed out the door. We all remembered this and repeated him. They smiled, happy to do that favor. We marched to the SUV, I was unsure of the seating arrangement. Apparently, however, Clover wanted to drive, again. She hurried to the driver's side and threw open the door and slipped inside.

I went to the trunk, put Hongou in it, closed it and looked at my options.


	3. Nudgie

"Hang up a second, guys." They all stopped and looked at me. "How 'bout we look around? Aoi might have left us some money or passports or…something. I'm sure that we could find _something_ out." The others thought for a few minutes, unsure if that was a good idea or not. A couple seconds later, when they remembered I was leader, they nodded and looked at me.  
>"Whatda we do, boss?" Clover asked. I blushed.<br>"First...don't call me that. Second..." I pushed my way through the 4 to get to the passenger's side. "I'll look in the front over here, Clover you look in the front over there, Lotus, look over here in the back and Seven over here in the back." They all nodded. The first thing I checked was the glove box. I found multiple American dollar bills. Some were 10's, some were 20's and some were 50's. There was about $10,000 total. That should be enough.

"I found some cash!" I yelled out. "Keep working, but if you find anything, yell it out." I heard a bunch of affirmative grunts as I kept looking. "Look for passports, or anything else." I looked over at Clover for a brief second. That second took forever, as I saw her frantically searching her side. There wasn't much to look for, but she was searching everything twice, being as thorough as she could possibly be. I looked back down. 'Focus Junpei! Focus!" I searched under the seat, and near the radio/dashboard. I found what looked like a fraction etched into a cup holder. It was a 6/2.

"Wouldn't that be 3?" Clover asked, over on her side, also eyeing the number. I looked at her, questioningly. She seemed to pick up what I was thinking. "6 divided by 2...It equals 3. Anyone out of elementary school knows that." I looked at her.

"For some reason I don't think that's what Aoi was talking about." I thought for a minute, when it finally hit me. "Maybe he meant the digital root of our numbers. Well...of our old numbers anyway." Clover thought for a moment, then spoke up.

"But that would give us two options. Me and Snake in the front - 2 plus 4 equals 6 - and you, Seven and Lotus in the back - 5 plus 7 plus 8 equals 20, 2 plus 0 equals 2, _or_ Seven and Lotus in the front - 7 plus 8 equals 15, 1 plus 5 equals 6 - and me, you and Snake in the back - 2 plus 4 plus 5 equals 11, 1 plus 1 equals 2." I nodded.

"Well, I know how much you liked to drive, but Seven was a cop, and he should drive from here on out. Lotus also wants to sit in front." I pointed at the seat I was in front of. "I...uh...I want to talk to you some more..." I said, feeling the heat rise to my face. She giggled, blushing also. A man came running up to the car.

"Um, excuse me. This kid with white hair and a tank top came by yesterday and told me to give a kid that's dressed like you this phone." He handed me a pre-paid cellphone. "You _are_ Jumpy, right?"

"Uh, yes, I am. Thank you." He nodded and ran off. The phone rang. I answered it.

"Hey, this is Junpei."

"Hey Junpei. I'd give up looking for me if I were you. There's no way you'd be able to find me."

"I'll keep looking for you. Anyway, there are some questions I want answered-especially one for Akane to answer." I heard some commotion on the other side of the phone. Then Akane's voice.

"Hey Jumpy. I heard you had something to ask me?"

"Yeah. Why me? Why'd you choose me?" She laughed. It wasn't a nice laugh, it was filled with...pity? Well, that was the only way to describe it.

"You haven't figured it out?" Figured what out?

"Well, everyone else has had a connection to the first Nonary Game 9 years and a day ago: Ace directed it; Snake, Clover, you and your brother were participants; Lotus had twins that were in it; Seven was a detective on the case about it and helped you guys escape; and the Ninth man, Nijisaki, helped with planning it. But I knew nothing about it. I wasn't a participant. In fact, the only connection I have is you being my friend. That's it!" She was silent for a few minutes.

"You're right, I'm you're only connection to the first Nonary Game. But it's because of you I'm able to live. You see, what you don't realize is that our feelings for each other have made us closer than most of the sibling pairs that were on the ship. Also, I was on the same vessel as my brother. Remember the mix-up? There was no way I was going to survive unless you helped me. This also proves how stupid you were. If you knew I was on the boat, you could have easily figured out you were in Building Q, as you cannot be on the same vessel as I if you wished to save me. Again, with the whole send and receiving thing. You're such an idiot...a cute idiot, but an idiot, none-the-less." She giggled and another commotion started on the other end of the line.

"I heard you two had a nice talk. So, any more questions where I can call you a moron?" I thought a moment before I replied.

"No. Being called an idiot made the rest of the questions leave. However, if I have any more, will I be able to reach you by this phone?"

"Yes, I'm the only contact. It's just 2-talk."

"Okay. Just remember...I _will_ find you."

He laughed.

"Right, you just keep telling yourself that." He hung up. I looked up to see Clover's questioning face.

"It was Aoi and Akane. They...weren't too nice." I pouted. Clover giggled. I blushed. I felt like we had found everything and pulled back.

"Hey everyone, let's get to the front of the vehicle!" They all moved to the front. "Okay, report. Seven, you first." Seven shrugged.

"I found nothing. Just the usual, a seat, a floorboard, you know..." Lotus nodded.

"Same here." Lotus finished and Clover spoke up.

"Heh, me and Junpei found a seating chart.'"

"A seating chart?" Seven didn't sound pleased. "Come on Aoi, we're not in elementary school anymore." I decided to speak up.

"Let's just try it, if only to see if it would work out. Me and Clover have found two possibilities to the seating chart. The first is Snake and Clover in the front, Seven, Lotus and I in the back." Clover was the only one to look excited. I went on before anyone could complain. "The better possibility is Seven and Lotus in the front, Snake, Clover and I in the back. This is better, as Lotus wants the front, and we're safer with Seven up there. This also gives me the chance to chat with Snake and Clover." Clover pouted as Lotus looked at me, unsure if I had different intentions, but nodded after a few seconds had past.

"You heard the man, let's go." They got to their respective doors, Seven and Lotus to the front, Lotus on the driver's side, Seven on the passenger side, Snake behind Seven and Clover and I behind Lotus.

Clover got the middle, so I scooted closer to the door as to give her the most room. We all buckled as Lotus turned the key over. She pressed on the gas.  
>"Sorry, it's been a while since I last drove, and being on the wrong side of the road doesn't help either." In America they drove on the right, opposite of in Japan.<p>

"It's alright," I said.

However, Clover couldn't go anywhere without causing friction.

"It's okay. We don't have a large mass that has the potential to crush and kill us back here." It was obviously directed at Seven.

"What'd you say? You little shrimp!"

"You heard me!"

"Oh, don't make me go back-" Lotus spoke up.

"Guys, I just wanna go home. Do you think we can do that without fighting with each other?" They were silent. I decided to speak up.

"Hey, I just realized that we don't know each other's' names...well, you all know mine, but I don't know yours. I don't wanna keep calling you by your nicknames, even though they ARE cool and all." Clover was the first to speak.

"Mine's Clover. Easy, huh? My brother's is Light."

"Mine...Mine isn't important." Lotus didn't sound happy. I didn't know why, but that could wait.

"Hey, Lotus. You had two daughters, right? What were their names?"

"Nona and Ennea. I've been into the number 9 my whole life, which explains it. Nona and Ennea both mean nine."

"Cool. So you have two daughters named nine." I chuckled. "Okay Seven, how 'bout you?"

"Well, I don't really remember my name. But I was going through names in my head and Satoshi sounds good, so I'll stick with that."

"Seven, a hunch about your name isn't good enough. We'll just stick to calling you Seven." I thought about the names I DID happen to get. "Okay, so I have Clover and Light. This isn't enough to call everyone by their given names, so Light, we'll just keep calling you Snake, as Clover's name IS her codename." I started thinking about...well, everything and nothing at the same time. After a while, I realized I had bumped into something on my right. It was Clover. She was looking at me intently.  
>"Do you...want something?" I blushed.<p>

"Eheh...Not really. I just..." What was I doing? I knew I was being blank minded, but other than that...It then hit me that we were on a bumpy road. The car probably moved me and I bumped her. I blushed at her and moved back towards the door, chuckling nervously. "Eh...the car moved me. Sorry." She smiled.

"It's alright; just, try not to make it a habit." I blushed again, and moved from committing to memory to reminiscing. How was I closer to Akane than Aoi was? Sure, we were best friends, but that was it...well, okay, we _did_ inhabit _some_ feelings for each other, but that was 9 years ago. I get the whole "I was on the same ship as my brother," but the rest...it was...I bumped against Clover again. I smiled uncomfortably, embarrassed.

"Jeez Junpei! You're nudging me so much..."

"So much! I've only nudged you twice!"

"Heh, that you know of. I count twelve."

"Really!"

"H'yeah. I should start calling you Nudgie."

"Nudgie? That has bad implications." It was her turn to blush.

"Well...it's partly based offa your name...I-E-P-N-U-J. It's mainly the N-U-J part that's important. Well, That's pronounced "Nudge," and since you're nudging me, that makes Nudgie." She beamed, though blushing a little. I was surprised. All this, in her head? Man, I would have needed paper, and that was my own name! I turned to her and whispered close to her ear.

"Has anyone ever told you you're smart?" She blushed. However, it was Snake who spoke up.

"Yes...I have. Multiple times even. Sometimes she's a little too smart for her own good." He chuckled. Lotus spoke up.

"What exactly are you guys talking about?" Snake spoke up first.

"Oh, we're just talking about how smart Akane was to put together this second Nonary Game." Lotus looked back at Snake, the speaker.

"Really? Cause I coulda sworn that that had _nothing_ to do with the earlier conversation." Snake was faster.

"We changed topics. I could have sworn you heard it." He turned towards me. "Junpei, have you been accessing the Morphic fieldset?" He 'looked' at me like he was saying 'go with it,' so I went with it.

"Maybe. I wasn't trying to. It...just happens." Lotus was still skeptical, but I took that moment so that I could change the topic to what Snake had suggested.

"Anyway Snake...what were we talking about before Lotus so rudely interrupted us?"

"Well, the fact that she wore an upside down 9 bracelet in itself is amazing, but the brainpower, manpower and money involved...it's simply mind boggling."

"Yeah...I wonder how she did it all-"

"Ewwww..." Lotus said quietly, squirming.

"What?"

"I just realized that I've been in these same clothes for two days now. I just simply can't go on like this. I like them and all...but being in them for more than a day? That's just..." She shuddered. "I swear, next town we reach, we go into a clothing store. 'Kay?" We sullenly nodded, not sure of what else to say, or do for that matter.

It took us a long while to get to the next town. We had passed the "Welcome to California" sign as well as several rest stops, but never a real town. So when we saw the sign in the distance we all silently cheered, as riding for five hours in a car is no fun what-so-ever. As we (and by "we" I mean Lotus) drove into town, we scouted for a sign, or marker showing us where the closest clothing store was, just for Lotus. She opened her door.

"I'll run in and back out as fast as I can. Just hold tight!" Someone's stomach grumbled, and I guessed it was Seven since he spoke up next.

"Well, just be quick about it. I'm hungry, and though I can't speak for the others, they seem to be hungry as well." The three of us in the back seat nodded in synchrony. Clover saw and couldn't keep quiet.

"Ninja'd!" We all laughed, forgetting our hunger for a minute, till Lotus called out her farewell.

"I'll try to go as fast as possible!" She shut the door and ran in. It was 1:00 when she went in, and the rest of us had nothing to do. We tried everything, Eye Spy, Who's That Pokemon, Who wants to be a Millionaire, Hangman, and even Favorite Foods. The last one backfired, making us hungrier.

"Come on Lotus," I said to myself, so quiet that not even Snake could hear. When Lotus finally came back, it was 1:30.

"Well, it took you long enough!" Seven growled.

"Sorry, I saw so many cool clothes, I just wasn't sure what to buy. I finally decided on these ones." She moved her arms down in a "see what I got?" motion. She wore a green tube top, light grey sweat pants, and white and black shoes - predominantly white, but with a green stripe around the front seam.

"Oh, that's soooooo cute!"

"Thanks Clover," Lotus giggled. Before anyone else could get their two cents in, Seven spoke up.

"Don't you think that outfit is maybe a _little _revealing?" After he asked that, we all stared at him. I decided to speak up.

"It's less revealing than her other outfit." Lotus glared at me, and I put my hands in the air defensively, essentially saying "sorry, but it's true."

"It was just a thought man, I don't want any trouble." There was a small silence after Seven said that. Then a stomach growled. "Right! We were gonna go get some food!" Lotus looked back at everyone, making sure they were buckled, then turned the SUV on. "So where do we wanna eat?"

We looked around, unsure of where a place to eat existed. We saw a yellow sign with white letters. It looked like a Denny's, and that was a restaurant, at least in Japan.

"Guys," I said. "I think there's a restaurant to the left."

"Sounds good to me," Snake said, startling me, as he hadn't spoken in a while. Seven growled, but signaled for Lotus to drive the car over.

When he had parked in the moderately filled parking lot, we all climbed out, Clover helping her brother out of the vehicle. As we walked in the building we went from sweating profusely to almost freezing. Well, it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty cold in there, and we had pretty much gotten used to the heat. Well, at least I had. A waitress met us inside, and showed us to a table. The restaurant was half filled, making the parking lot a good prediction of how full it was. I looked around, shocked at all the people.  
>We sat down at the table the waitress led us to while she passed out menus. After she was finished, she pulled out a small pad and a pen, then asked for what drinks we wanted. She wrote them down in order, then turned to walk away.<p>

"Alright, I'll have your drinks in a moment."

I turned to the others, remembering something.

"Guys, I think we forgot about Ace...Hongou"

"Don't worry, we'll get him a doggy bag." Surprisingly, Seven had come up with that, and we all looked at him oddly. "What? I can come up with funny things to say."

The rest of the time was highly uneventful. We ate, drank, and were merry, well, sorta. We plotted out our course again, then took some of Seven and Snake's left over food out to Hongou. Clover surprised me in the restaurant. She ordered one of the BIGGEST plates of food there, and downed it like it wasn't even there. When she saw my amazed gaze, she shrugged as if it was no big deal.

When Hongou finished eating, we put the tape over his mouth and started off on our long journey again - bellies full of food this time.

**Hongou: That wasn't nice, Seven.**

**Seven: Says the guy who tried to kill 18 kids...**

**Me: Guys...we just need to figure out how we're going to get you back home.**

**Clover: I thought you had a plan...**

**Me: Um, yeah. Of course I do...I just...kinda lost it...**

**Clover: WHAT.**

**Me: Please review! Ouch! CLOVER!**


	4. Recreations

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I don't remember the rest, but the situation I was in reminded me of that passage. The SUV had broken down between two cities, and the last sign we saw said that the nearest town was 20 miles. That town happened to be Sacramento, whatever that town was. I was off by my lonesome, depressed that we were stuck between two towns with no way to get out. Akane's voice echoed through my head.

"You're such an idiot...a cute idiot, but an idiot none-the-less." She didn't have to rub it in. When did the "no question is a stupid question" philosophy stop? Or more importantly, when did "a "stupid question" does not make a person stupid" stop? Or was that even a said statement? I held the phone in my hand, the 2 already pressed. I didn't know whether to call or not. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere. I heard a noise behind me, and Clover came and sat down.

"So, you gonna tell me about Akane now? It's a great time, with our situation and all."

I nodded, as I discreetly pressed the "Clear" button on the phone.

"Me and Akane - We went to the same school nine years ago. Well, ten, but she left a year later. I never knew why…now I do." Clover nodded, understanding that it was the Nonary Game that had taken her. "Anyways, I always viewed myself as a hero, coming to some princess' aid, which led to me getting beat up in 4th grade." I stopped, remembering. The pain of the blows...it didn't hurt nearly as much as it had hurt my ego.

"Being the hero...it was...well, it made me have a big ego. I viewed myself high and mighty. But then, when I was defending Akane from the neighborhood bullies who had killed some rabbits, my pride made me fall. It's not like I could have done anything to protect her anyways, I was a shrimp back then, but I felt invincible - like nothing could stop me. I was dead wrong. Well, almost dead wrong." I looked at Clover.

"I'm still here, aren't I?"

She nodded.

"That's when June became Akane's nickname. Yes, June is the 6th month, but that was only a coincidence. See, after I got beat up, me and Akane were on a hill, looking at the sunset. I think I knew she would leave...cause I gave her a "for you doll." It was actually a voodoo doll, but I gave it to her to remember me by. I originally named it Junpei, so that I was always near to her, but once we learned it was actually a voodoo doll, we named it "June" instead. We both knew about that evening, and that's probably why she was so willing to have that as her nickname." Clover had looked at me for the past 10 minutes with the same expression - sympathy. I looked back at her.

"Don't give me that look. I've essentially been to Hell and back, so that was no big deal. This Nonary Game, however, was probably the worst thing I've gone through." Her face changed to shock.  
>"I - I wasn't feeling bad for you...I was...I was..." she hung her head. "I remembered what my brother went through." Snake.<p>

"That's right, he was in a car accident, wasn't he?" Clover nodded. I looked back and saw the rest of the gang trying to figure out what was wrong. Snake, though blind, was giving Seven directions. Seven was scratching his head, unsure. At least, that's what it looked like, he was too far away to really tell. I looked back at Clover.

"I-I'm sure it was tough." I managed to get out. Clover nodded.

"Truthfully, I was too young to really remember anything. I was REALLY small. Like about two years old. My poor brother was only seven."

"It...must have been like going through Hell. Like when Akane and I found out the class bunnies were murdered. I vowed..." A tear started dripping from my eye. "I vowed that I would find them." I dropped my head. "And I tried to be a hero. And what did I get?" I looked back up at Clover. "I got two black eyes, a misshapen face, and a crushed ego. But you know what? Akane loved me all through that. At least, I thought she still did." Clover looked away, looking like a dump truck ran over her. "I thought she still liked me. We had...a few jokes in the building, and I thought I felt something. But I guess I was wrong. Tricked by a girl I thought I knew." Clover scooted closer to me and hugged my arm. I looked back at her, not understanding why she did that.

"Junpei…."

"Yeah?"

"The doll, wasn't it taken onto the ship? And then burned?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Well, it was originally named Junpei, right? After you? Well, what if you were brought to the ship because of that doll's power?"

I stared at her.

"That's…that's ridiculous. Though, I guess that if I hadn't saved her, we would both be dead." I was quiet for a moment, thinking it over. Maybe it was possible. Seven interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey, you two back there! Love birds!" I turned around with flames in my eyes.

"Seven, we are NOT love birds! Shut your mouth, or I will kick you in the back of the face!"

"Whatever, hon; we found a ride. He's willing to take us all to Sacramento." Lotus called back. Snake spoke up before I could reply.

"Oh, and Junpei, It's impossible to kick someone in the back of the face. It's not anatomically possible."

"Whatever, Snake." I turned to Clover. "Well, let's go." We ran back to the others. "Wait guys, what about Hongou?" Lotus facepalmed.

"How did we forget about him?" She brusquely walked to the SUV's trunk and opened it, then dragged Hongou out. She took him over to the nice man giving us a ride.

"Can we take this one to the police station? We need him there." She asked/demanded. He agreed, and we all somehow got in the vehicle. Clover had to sit on my lap while I sat there, red-faced. She saw it.

"Nudgie, it's fine. We all have to compromise." She looked at Snake, the one with the best seat. "Some more than others." I looked back at Clover.

"But he's blind."

"I know, I wasn't saying anything in envy, I was just saying that some have to compromise more than others. Like you, for instance. But tell me the truth; you like it, don't you?" This immediately put me into a rage.

"NO, OF COURSE I DON'T!" Everyone looked at me. "Sorry," I said, hanging my head. Clover just laughed.

"Right. That kind of reaction proves it." She winked at me. I blushed in return. She just giggled.

"Yeah…not love birds, huh?"

"Quiet Seven." I growled. He just chuckled in reply. Hongou started making noise in the back seat. I looked up front.

"Hey, do you guys have any duct tape?" A roll of duct tape being handed back was my answer. I unrolled about four inches off, and ripped it, then reached over to Hongou and switched the tape out. Hongou grunted unappreciatively. I shrugged.

"Sorry Hongou, just a few more minutes and you'll be in a better place than a car trunk."

"But not much better." Clover added grimly. After she said that, a song came on the radio. It was definitely the wrong one for this situation. The lyrics went "Come on, move a little bit closer, you can put your head on my shoulder." Of course, Clover and I looked at each other. I saw _exactly _what was going on through her head.

"NO! You are not-" Her head plopped on my shoulder, her breath on my neck. I sighed and slowly relented. It did feel good, though. I...I kind a enjoyed it. Her head on my shoulder, her breath on my neck. I cleared my head. Keep it together, Junpei! Clover rolled her head across my shoulder a few times. Seven chuckled again.

"Hey, I told you to shut your trap!" I said, glaring at him. That only made him laugh harder. I sighed, unsure of what I could do. Snake "looked" back at us.

"What is going on up there?" He asked. Seven spoke up.

"Your sister and Junpei are getting close. And I don't just mean-" I shoved my hand over his mouth and glared at him. He caught my glare and gave me an evil grin. I removed my hand, but then Lotus spoke up.

"Junpei, you in love with Seven or something?" Seven turned a bright red, his grin disintegrating faster than snow in June, and my hand flew off his mouth faster than a bird getting shot at.  
>"Wow," Clover said. "That is so weird and, quite honestly, really creepy." Lotus just shrugged, telling far more than her words would ever say. However, it was girl speak, and I'm not exactly fluent in that.<br>Clover took her head off my shoulder and answered her shrug.  
>"That's true." She said, winking at me. I pretended not to see it. She huffed and put her head back on my shoulder. I sighed deeply and looked up at the ceiling.<br>"It's going to be a long ride, huh?" Snake asked. I nodded and then realized he couldn't see me, so I sighed in approval.

The trip was long. Well, it felt long. It's amazing how long 15 minutes can feel with nothing to pass the time. There was not even a pattern on the ceiling. Clover's head on my shoulder was the only thing that kept me from falling asleep. If I fell asleep, she'd fall of, onto Seven. I couldn't let that happen, I didn't know why, but I felt that I couldn't. It just didn't seem right. However, neither did her sleeping on my shoulder. But I grinned and bore it, minus the grinned part.

However, I got to thinking about Akane. Was it really love that we had? We had a bond; that much was certain. The way she would laugh when I told even the cheesiest jokes. But, was that still there? That special bond that nothing can break…Was it still there? "You're an idiot. A cute idiot, but an idiot none-the-less." If she hated me...why did she force me to play that game with her? I realize that she wanted me there to save her, but was that it? Was that her only motive? I know it's...important...to stay alive, but was it just that?

The more I thought more about Akane and her possible ulterior motives, the more excited I got, as well as getting more into denial. But more questions popped into my head. They multiplied and multiplied, never stopping. Does she still have feelings for me? She doesn't hate my guts, does she? I hope not, in fact, she brought me all the way to Nevada, just to save her life. That doesn't sound like someone who hates someone else's guts. But I really don't know. I'm assuming everything, and you know what they say about assuming. You never go anywhere by assuming, that's what they say.

It crossed my mind to call Akane and Aoi again, but I decided against it. I'll just talk to Clover later. She might have some valuable insight to the female's brain. Then again, all girls are different. And weird, but that's beside the point.

Clover moved her head a little, and I wondered if she was waking up, but she was just getting a little more comfy. I patted her head lightly, and put my chin on her head, feeling her hair compress just a bit.

"Thanks," I whispered, sure that no one but the driver and I were awake, but still didn't want anyone to hear, but Clover. "Thanks for being there. It's been nice to talk with someone about...About..." I can't say it. I can't say the name that's been going through my mind constantly throughout this entire trip. "About her." I finally say. Seven woke up and I looked over at him.

"Seven, there's one thing that bothers me."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Well, the American government doesn't know about Building Q, do they?" Seven scratched his head, thinking about that.

"No, I suppose they don't."

"So, in that case, they probably don't know about the Nonary Game either, right?" Seven looked at me curiously.

"What are you thinking, Junpei?"

"Well, if they don't know about either of those, I don't think it would be a good idea to turn Hongou in here. I think we should wait until we get to Japan." Seven thought again.

"But what if we run into Alice?" Alice? This late in the game. It was my turn to think about that. If we run into Alice, do we take her along with us, or do we just toss her to the side? Why would she even show up? The only time I thought I saw Alice was in the desert, and that could have been a mirage.

"Seven, I don't even know if Alice is real, and you're still under amnesia. Are you sure we can take that as fact, or even as an option? If we rely on Alice being real too seriously, we might only hurt ourselves in the end."

"Ouch. I was only throwing an idea out there."

"Yes, but that idea, although it might be helpful later, is pretty much useless now." I felt bad treating Seven like this, but he needs to hear it. However, one thing was still stuck in my mind.

"Seven, I just realized something."

"What's that?"

"We don't have passports..."

**Me: Oi, that was tougher than expected.**

**Clover: I don't think your fans will like you now.**

**Me: Why not?**

**Clover: 'Cause it's a cliff hanger. Fans HATE cliff hangers…especially when the writer takes a long time to write the next chapter.**

**Me: ..Ouch.**

**Clover: Oh, sorry. But it's the truth.**

**Me: Just review. What's going to happen next? Who knows? (Actually, the next chapter's out already, so why are we wondering?)**


	5. Passports

Seven looked at me.

"Eh, I suppose we'll figure something out."

"What do you mean? No one has any idea of what happened - the Nonary Game, Cradle Pharmaceutical, Alice. No one knows anything." Again, maybe a little harsh, but Seven's skull was pretty thick that I had to be a little harsher than necessary. Seven scratched his head, thinking about it.

"Aoi gave you a phone, didn't he?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Why don't you give him a call? He's probably got something planned." Seven said it calmly, and I almost decked him for being that way. That bastard took the girl I loved and turned her into a monster. Or...did she do that on her own? I didn't know what to think. Did she do that on her own, or was someone pulling her strings like a puppet? This was too much. However, I didn't want to do anything in this vehicle - it was too limiting. I looked forward, towards the person driving.

"Is-is there a..." I paused, thinking for the right word, "...reststop somewhere ahead?" The driver nodded. "Can we stop there? We..." I thought of the right word again. Man, English was hard, even though we had learned it from Elementary school on, we still had kana and Kanji to learn, and those took precedence over English. I thought of a word I had heard from American Television, and I thought it was the right one. "We need to...freshen up a bit." The driver looked at me strangely, but nodded, and we continued on our way.

A few minutes later we stopped at a rest stop. It was a lonely building with a square block in front holding four vending machines. On one side of the larger building was MEN and the other WOMEN in big, blue letters. I didn't know which one to go in, so I watched our host, who also had to use the restroom, and followed him. I relieved myself and then exited, pulling the phone out of my pocket and pressing 2. I wasn't sure if I was ready until I heard the tell-tale buzz that said I had pressed the call button. I slowly brought the phone to my ear. A click on the other side.

"Hey - Junpei?"

"Yeah...It's me." I gulped. "Aoi - We need passports." I heard a laugh.

"You think you need passports?"

"Well don't we?" I asked, completely unsure of what to do at this point.

"Well, actually you do." He said, less-humored than his earlier statement. "However, don't worry about it, I've got things planned."

"Uh...one...one more-" Aoi cut me off, since I was taking too long.

"What! Spit it out man!"

"Can I...talk with A-Akane?" I asked unsure of myself, but then gained a little courage and added, "Please?" He laughed and I heard a muffled, quieter "He wants to talk to you."

"Hello?" A female voice. Not just any female voice, her voice. My heart jumped.

"AKANE!"

"Yeah, yeah, it's me. Now what do you want?" Her voice was bitter - there was nothing sweet in her tone, unlike how it was on the ship. I was scared because of it. "Is it more Q and A you want? Is that why you called?" The voice was cruel and unforgiving. I was unsure if I wanted to answer.

"Uh...I had more questions for you." I managed to get out. She sighed.

"Okay, what is it? I've lost a lot of patience with you." Her cruel voice almost made me say nothing, but I remembered I might not get another chance like this.

"I wanna know….Well…do you hate me?" She sighed.

"Jumpy, I grabbed you from your apartment, dragged you across the International Date Line, and forced you to play a game that would save my life. That's a long way of saying that I needed you and nothing more."

"So…you were using me?" There was a pause after I asked that.

"If you want to put it that way – yes, I guess I was." She finally said, her voice rid of most of the cruelty, and filled with….Sympathy? I hung my head, knowing that I had in fact been used.

"Akane…." I started. "I thought….I thought we had something…Even after all that time, I thought we had something." A feeling of rage ran through me. "Did you….were you lying to me? Through all that we went through? Did you not remember what we had done 9 years ago, before you were taken?" I yelled, but then settled down a bit, and spoke a little softer. "I thought that we might still have some kind of shared feelings. But I guess I was wrong. You just used me through that entire experience. Maybe I should have let you die." After I said that, she went defensive and started shouting at me.

"But then where would you be? You'd be ash in the incinerator room. No, you'd be less than ash – you'd be an atom on the floor. What could you do then? Absolutely nothing! Better to save a girl who no longer loves you and save your own life, then to have both killed, plus the others in that same room. You'd have killed 8 people, and then you'd have their deaths to blame on yourself. Not like that would matter, you'd have no worries at all!"

"Neither would you... Besides, those deaths would be your fault anyway. You are the one that kidnapped us." I interjected, then cleared my thoughts. "I have no other questions, can I speak with your brother again?"

"No. I'm still talking with you."

"What about?" There was a few minute pause on the other side of the phone. "Akane, what about?" I asked again.

"N-nothing. H-here's my brother," she said, sounding defeated. A few seconds past, finally I heard Aoi on the other end.

"Yo, Jumpy." When I heard his voice I got all fired up.

"I'm gonna make this short. Where can we find the passports?"

"Fair Oaks. Mikuni Restaurant. I have a contact ready to meet you there."

"Okay." I said, hanging up. I looked up to see Clover in front of me.

"So, where do we gotta go?"

"Fair Oaks. It's gotta be close." I walked over to the driver, who had just walked out of the men's room. "Is...ano...Fair Oaks...ano...close by?" I asked, with my Basic English vocabulary. The driver nodded.

"Yeah, it's just that way," he pointed in some direction, which I was unsure of.

"Okay, we...need to...go there." I said, struggling. He nodded, and I looked around. Clover bounced into my face.

"AH! Jeez, Clover! Don't do that!" I exclaimed loudly, and her face fell. "Oh, sorry, you just scared me, that's all." At that, she perked up.

"So, what's the news? What's gonna happen?"

"Well, we need to be going to Fair Oaks for something." I looked at the others. "Is anyone hungry?" I got four nods. "Okay." I turned to the driver. "I'll direct you to...where we...need to go." he nodded, understanding.

We piled into the car, into our previous spots. Clover put her head on my shoulder again. I sighed, knowing she got some guilty pleasure from it. We sped along the highway, the vehicle silent. We had a language barrier with the driver, and the rest of us didn't want to talk for some reason or another. So, we just sat in silence. Eventually the driver turned the radio on, I'd guess to lift the spirits that silence brings down. By that time, Clover had fallen asleep again, her lips slightly parted, her hair bunched on my shoulder, making one of the best pillows I had ever seen in my life. I sorta envied her hair, in a way. I'd been on a few camping trips in my life, and every single time, I had forgotten a pillow. It had sucked to the extreme. I looked outside, spotting a sign. Fair Oaks 15 miles. I poked the driver in the shoulder. He turned the radio down.

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Do you know where the Mikuni Restaurant is?"

"Yeah, it's not too far now, about 15 and a half miles from here."

"We need to get there."

"Alright man," he said before we went silent again. A few minutes later he turned the radio on again. Clover started to shift in her seat. She opened her eyes a bit.

"Nudgey, where...where are we?"

"Not far now."

"Good. I wanna go home."

"Me too," I said, smiling. "Me too..." Clover sat up straight, almost fully awake. She stretched a bit.

"How long was I out?"

"Uh..."

"About an hour" said Snake, saving me the trouble of trying to remember the exact time.

"Only an hour? Dang. I was hoping we'd be there by now."

"Unfortunately, time doesn't work that way," I said, regretfully.

About 15 minutes passed, and we were surrounded by houses. It was a suburban area. Without warning, a siren filled the air behind us. I looked back behind us, and was met with flashing red and blue lights.

"Crap," the driver said, looking in his mirror. He moved to the side of the road. The Police car followed. He put the car in "Park" and turned to Clover. "Pink hair, get down. It's not legal for you to sit like that." Clover sat there for a second, deciphering his words then got down on her elbows and knees, trying to hide as best she could. The policeman got out of his car, and the driver rolled his window down, they chatted a bit. It was a little too fast for me to catch, but I did see the policeman looking at us. But it didn't get bad until the driver took an opportunity while the policeman was at his car answering a call. The driver slammed the stick into "Drive" and sped off, not waiting for the policeman to get anywhere.

"To the Mikuni Restaurant, right?" I nodded. "Hang on then." We drove for a block, then turned right, almost overshooting our lane, and running into a small car. We swerved back into our lane, and went for another couple blocks. The driver was intently looking through his window. Another block passed, and another. Sirens came from behind us. 3 more blocks had passed when finally the driver swore.

"Crap, we passed it!" He turned the wheel to the left, and braked hard, causing the car to slide into opposite lane, going the way we had come from.

"Pink Hair, get into Vest's lap, you'll all have to jump out in the parking lot, then run. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." Clover got into my lap. Seconds later, he slid into a parking lot and slowed down. The rest of us jumped out and ran towards the closest cover. The driver quickly turned around. "The Restaurant is a block that way," he pointed towards the way we had been going. "Good luck!" We quickly waved back, when out of nowhere Lotus sprung to life.

"Matte! Oi! Chotto matte!" He stopped, confused. She pointed at the trunk, and he understood. The trunk popped open, and Lotus heaved Ace out of the trunk. She pushed him towards Seven who had gone running behind her. He caught Ace, spun around, got Ace in a fireman's carry, and ran back to the spot Clover, Snake and I were. Lotus slammed the trunk closed and ran back as well, the driver pulling out and speeding the opposite way, police cars following close behind him when he left.

We waited for a few minutes, catching our breath.

"Snake, you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, and everyone else?" Everyone vocalized that they were okay, and Snake looked a little more relieved.

"Why'd you have to throw him at me?" Seven's voice rang out without warning. He was looking at Lotus, with fire in his eyes.

"Cause you're too stupid to get any hints!"

"What? What hints? You just opened the trunk and flung him at me!"

"Well what else was I supposed to do in that situation? I couldn't just wait for you to come and be all macho about it!"

"GUYS!" I shouted, getting their attention. "The restaurant. Once we get there, we don't have to worry about anything." They nodded, grudgingly. "Then let's go." We started off, looking over our shoulders as we went, still paranoid about the police. It took us a few minutes, but we got there with no problems. It was kind of nice really, having little attention on us, aside from being out of the country. We walked into the restaurant. It was a nice little place, though kind of dark. It was perfect for what we were doing. A waitress came up. She was American, but I would guess that she had taken Japanese lessons.

"Eh...Anata wa Nihonjin, desu ka?*"

"Hai*"

"Rokujin desu...Anata wa asoko josei to atte imasu ka?*"

"Ano, watashi wa so omou.*"

"Ah, sonogo, watashi ni shitagau.*" We followed her to a small table where a tanned woman sat, her face hidden by the menu. We took our seats and looked through our menus as well. The waitress left us while we got our orders ready. Mmm, corn soup, and curry. I knew what I wanted. I looked at the drinks, when the woman spoke up.

"Get whatever you want. It's on me." We looked up...to see..._her_.

*Translated the entire exchange is:

"Erm...you are Japanese, right?"

"Yes."

"Six people...are you with that woman over there?"

"Um...I think so."

"Ah, follow me, then."

**June: I acted like a total jerk there.**

**Me: Blame your brother.**

**June: Why?**

**Me: Isn't he the one who turned you into who you are now?**

**June: Heh, wouldn't you like to know?**

**Clover: HEY! HE'S MINE JUNE, NOT YOURS!**

**Me: Eh...Clover, you're Junpei's girl...**

**Clover: Not yet I'm not!**

**Me (Sweat drop): Eheh...Please review?**


	6. Alice

I blinked a few times, even went so far to pinch myself. This definitely wasn't a dream. In front of us was the lady we had passed on our first day. I must say, she did have a nice tan - you couldn't get a tan like that with a tanning machine, that's for sure.

But that wasn't the striking part. Her face had a striking resemblance to...something. I wasn't quite sure just why her face was so familiar, I just knew it was. Snake was the only one out of the loop, for reasons we all knew, so when Lotus said "Alice?" His head popped up, and I suddenly remembered why she looked familiar. It was on the coffin lid.

"Alice? Where?" Snake asked, quietly.

"Right in front of us," Clover whispered to him.

"Are you sure?"

"H'yeah!"

"You know, I _can_ hear you..." We all blushed as she said that.

"We...uh...we just weren't ready for you to show up and be Aoi's contact," I managed to get out. She nodded, seeming to understand.

"Yeah, funny story about that. I escaped a little before you guys did. Since I come from Egypt, the heat didn't bother me much, so I walked as far as my legs would carry me. After a while, I got tired. In Egypt, when we wished to get on other's buggies, we would stick out our thumbs, something you would call hitch-hiking. First Aoi came by, then you guys. Both ignored me, so, when my legs got all rested, I started walking again.

"Eventually, some man in a sports car came by and asked if I needed a ride, which I did. I hopped in, and we drove off. It was nighttime by the time we reached Gardinerville, but we kept going. I guess the man didn't live there. We came across another town, where we ran into Aoi and Akane. They were eating at the time. He recognized me, and asked if I wanted to help him out - said he had some things to deliver to some friends. I said sure, even though he told me he had a lot of cronies to do it for him.  
>"He gave me a package, then told me to come and meet you here. Said you'd call soon, and he'd tell me the time and day. Sure enough, a day later, a call comes in telling me to arrive about 10 minutes ago, get a table and wait. And here you are." As she finished, the waitress came back to get everyone's order. Green tea, corn soup, curry and a rice ball was my menu, and oh, it'll surely make my day. But I came back to the topic at hand.<p>

"So you have our passports?" I asked hopefully. There was a pause.

"Yes. Yes I do. But, you'll get them after we eat."

"Can't you show them to us?" She looked to the side, unsure. "No, not until we're done here. I have strict orders." I shrugged, but Lotus wasn't ready to give up without a fight.

"Just showing them to us is too much? That's bullshit! At least let us see that they're there, and open them up to let us see if they're ours! You can do that, can't you?" Alice sighed. There was a small pause, and after it seemed that Alice had thought about it for long enough, she bent to reach her bag and pulled out 6 blue mini books. She opened each one up, one at a time to show that they were both genuine and ours, then put them back in her bag. Feeling both relieved and satisfied, Lotus sat back. Our food came, and we ate it in silence.

About an hour later, we finished eating. The food was good, but not as good as it was in Japan, so I for one, was a little disappointed. But the others looked pretty lively. Maybe their food was more authentic tasting. I shrugged inwardly, and turned back to Alice.

"Passports please?"

"Just a sec-"

"Aww, come on, lady! How many more hoops does Aoi want us to jump through?" Seven practically yelled at her.

"Seven...Calm yourself." I said to him, gently. He sighed.

"Okay, Junpei. This is just pissing me off."

"Yeah, I know how you feel." I turned back to Alice. "So, what is the next hoop we have to jump through?" Alice looked at her paper.

"First thing is to sleep."

"What?"

"We're going to a hotel. It's..." She checked a watch on her wrist. "Nine thirty local time. You need sleep."

"Oh."

"Then, follow me." She put money on the table and led us outside to a van. Hongou was pushed into the back, as usual, and the rest of us got in. I went to the very back, making me safe. Clover sat beside and Snake beside her. Seven sat in the seat ahead of us, and Lotus sat in the front with Alice. We drove to a hotel. Apparently, Santa had already made arrangements, and Alice went straight to the Elevator. The people in the Lobby looked at Hongou a little oddly, as he was tied up, but other than that, we passed by relatively unnoticed. We entered the elevator and went up and up. When we finally stopped, I had to pop my ears.

Alice split us into gender groups. One group got one room, and the other group got another room, and the rooms were separated by a hallway. All of us wanted to go swimming, though none of us had any swimming gear. Alice surprised us all by pulling swimming suits out of a bag by the bed in the girl's room. We changed and rushed down to the pool, probably creating a scene. But we didn't care, we just wanted to go swimming, and have fun without our lives being on the line. We finally left the pool room when the staff closed it. We went up to our rooms, showered, changed, and fell asleep. Well, Snake and I fell asleep, Seven stayed up to watch Hongou.

I woke up, finding myself handcuffed to the still sleeping Clover. Apparently Seven had fallen asleep too, and he was handcuffed to Snake. Lotus was handcuffed to Ace. All were sleeping besides Alice and I. I looked at Alice. She smiled apologetically.

"Um, Alice, what are you doing?"

"I'm handcuffing you together. Aoi told me to. And he was specific enough to tell me to cuff you in these specific groups."

"But why?"

"For you to look for your passports. Two heads are better than one, or at least, that's what they say."

"Why do we have to look for them if you have the Passports right over there?" I asked, pointing at the bag she had, containing out "Passports."

"Cause these are fakes."

"WHAT?"

"Yes, these are fakes, to make you happy in case you asked to see if they were yours. Clover woke up a little and looked at me with a grin that spelled trouble. I just turned to Alice again, hoping she could be an escape rope. She wasn't.

"You two take this paper and have fun now!" She dropped papers on the three sleeping groups, then left. Clover picked up the paper and we looked at the paper in Clover's hands. Numbers scattered the page. There were _so_ many, and I couldn't focus on any of them. Thankfully Clover could. After a few seconds she began to decipher the code.

"Okay. We need to get to a library," she told me, obviously seeing that I wasn't capable of thinking at the moment.

"Wait, Clover, how'd you get that?" Seven asked, startling me. I looked over at the now awake Seven and Snake pair. That might be tough as the smarter of the two was blind.

"Ah, I see," said Snake.

"How?" I asked him; unsure of how he could understand something he couldn't see. He held up a sheet of paper.

"Braille sheet, just for me." He said it so matter of factly. I felt kinda dumb. But I felt worse seeing Lotus and Hongou together as a group. Sure, Lotus could most likely figure out the numbers, but would Hongou cooperate and not try to kill her like he did in building Q? I looked at the now awake Lotus.

"Lotus...uh...will you be alright?" I asked, unsure if maybe Seven should go with Hongou instead of Lotus. Lotus glared at me, and I knew she'd be fine. I chuckled nervously. "Heh, forget I asked." I looked at Clover. "So, what exactly does it say?"

"Well...We go to the library, Snake and Seven go to a...a bar? Yeah, a bar..." She shook her head, dazed, then continued. "And Lotus and Hongou go to...a church? That won't go over well at all!" She looked back up at me. "You ready to go find that library?"

"Yep! Let's go. I'd like to be out of these bonds ASAP."

"Why? You don't want to sweat together?"

I felt awkward, and tried to change the subject.

"Let's get on our way..." I said, trying to get out of this uncomfortable situation. There was a plus to this...Or at least, I'd try to think of one. Clover definitely saw it as a plus; she made it a point to make sure I knew that. We walked out of The Mikuni and headed toward the first library looking structure we could find.

Unfortunately, there were a lot in the area. We passed five structures that could look like a library, but they none were. We were about to give up when we found a map of the surrounding area. The Mikuni was on there, as was a library. We checked the street signs near where we were to find out place on the map, then moved in the direction that the map said the library would be.

"My feet hurt." Clover complained. Mine hurt too, but I wasn't going to complain. It didn't seem right for a guy to complain. Clover got closer to me. "You should carry me."

"What?" I asked. She poked me in the forehead.

"You. Should. Carry. Me."

"No."

"What? Why not?"

"Cause we're in the middle of...Fair Oaks, was it?"

"Yeah, Fair Oaks...But that shouldn't matter! Love knows no bounds!"

"L-love? Who said anything about love?"

"I didn't have to; I see it in your eyes!"

"That's not love, that's fear! I know what you can do!"

"Oh, you're impossible, Nudgie!" She looked like an anime character in that moment. Her lips pressed together in a frown. She looked like Himeji or Kirino*. It was actually kinda cute. But if I said that, she'd win. I played it off.

"I have had a dog, a cat, some bunnies and a giant bedbug named Lou; that face will _not _work on me." I said, joking on part of that. A dog, and a cat, yes; but it was my school had the bunnies, and Lou was only a figment of my imagination. Clover didn't know that though.

"A _what_?"

"A dog, a cat —"

"No, that last part."

"Oh, the giant bedbug? Pshh, he doesn't bite. He's actually quite friendly." I said, keeping along with the act I had just came up with. Clover looked at me, still scared.

"How...How big is he?"

"Oh, about this big." Do to the cuffs, I had to move to show her that "Lou" was about the size of a basketball hoop. She dipped her head and her eyes went black.

"Then I will kill it...I shall kill it with fire." She mumbled.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing," She said, looking up, her eyes and mouth opened wide in a smile. I was sure she had seen way to much anime. And since I had seen a lot of anime, I knew exactly what was going to go down.

"No. You are _not_ going to kill my favorite pet!"

"What? Oh, hey, we're here!" She pointed at the library that we had finally reached. It was a brick building with glass doors on the front. Just above the doors were the letters L-I-B-R-A-R-Y in multicolored light up bubble letters. We walked inside, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while being handcuffed together.

Inside, on the left, there was a board. Numbers littered the majority of the space. Where the numbers finished there was a final code.

"Uh...okay. It says find the book from the code given. There's a certain code in American libraries...The Dewey Decimal System. We have to find the book from it's DDS number."

"Is that the code at the end?"

"Yeah." The code said J495.13. I had no idea where to go. Left, right, it didn't matter, I was lost. But Clover tugged my wrist, knowing exactly where to go. "C'mon _leader_, we gotta get going. We're wasting time as it is!" I followed along, filled with awe that this girl with pink pom-poms for hair could have a code cracker inside her head, working constantly, and _always_ getting the right code eventually. This time, it was definitely the right code, and she had gotten it pretty fast. I wondered how she did it.

We passed by a bookshelf with a sign on the side saying "495.0 – 495.99." It wasn't a big section, but I suppose it did what it was supposed to. We looked for the .13 first. It had to be fairly close to the beginning. We searched, bumping heads multiple times before we found it.

"Japanese Numbers: All you need to know about telephone numbers, street addresses and prices," I read, the Japanese upbringing evident in my voice if anyone other than Clover was around to hear me.

"Well, don't just read the cover, open it up!"

"Okay, okay." I opened the front cover to see another group of numbers. Clover translated for me.

"Good job, you found the book. Turn to pages 53, 194 and 1773 for more instructions."

"Uh, I don't think this book is thick enough for one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three pages..." I said slowly, looking at the pretty thin book from the side.

"Hmmm, maybe it's a clue."

"Maybe, let's keep that in mind." I flipped to page 53. There were lots of numbers, and any of them could be a clue. But then a red mark caught my eye. It had caught Clover's eye as well.

"It says...'Try another page.'"

"What?"

"Yeah, that's what it says."

"Well, I guess we should try page one ninety-four." I flipped to page 194. Another red mark.

"'Wrong page, try again.'"

"But we have the right pages, right?"

"According to the beginning of the book we do."

"Maybe the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three is a clue."

"What if it's not that large number, and it's only seventeen, and seventy-three?" Clover looked at me, and I looked back at her. Would wonders ever stop? She was a good luck charm or something.

"Let's check!" I flipped back to page seventeen. A red mark was under a three.

"I'd guess thirty something."

"Why's that?"

"It seems to be a number to the safe mentioned in the letter. Since there are two page numbers, it's safe to say that the first number is a three, putting it in the ten's digit. Voila! Thirty something."

"Whatever, let's just find the second number." I flipped to page seventy-three.

"Thirty-eight is our official number!" Clover called.

"SSSSSSHHHHHHHH!" Came a multitude of perturbed library goers.

"Sorry," She said in an almost whisper.

"Kay, let's meet the others..."

*Himeji is from Baka and Test, Kirino is from Oreimo

**Me : Sorry it took so long! I plan on having Chapter 6 take less time, and I actually know what's going to happen! Thanks for reading, you guys are the best!**

**Clover: You really think so? I dunno, they seem...bored with it.**

**Me: What are you talking about?**

**Clover: ...You don't get all that many reviews do you?**

**Me: Oh. Well, they can review if they want. They are adults, or they should be, the game was rated M - partially because of you.**

**Clover: Me? I thought it was mainly because of Santa.**

**Santa: Hey I heard that! And I thought it was Lotus' fault**

**Me (Reading the back of the box): M for "Blood, Drug Reference, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence." It**_**'s mainly **_**your fault!**

**Santa: But...Seven did the drug references, Lotus and Clover were the suggestive themes, and Ace did the violence!**

**Me: It's still your fault...**

**Santa: Whatever**

**Clover: Bye guys!**

**Me: Clover wait!**

**Narrator: Next time on The Search for June; will the pairs get their handcuffs off? Will they actually get their passports? Does Junpei really have a giant bedbug named Lou? All this will be revealed. Stay tuned!**

**Junpei: No, I don't.**

**Clover: You lied to me! FEEL MY WRATH!**

**Junpei: (sweat drop)**


	7. Freedom

We walked out of the library, the number thirty-eight bouncing around in our minds. I shook my head to clear it of that number for a second so I could ask Clover a few things.

"Clover...what's the code? And how did you know it within seconds?"

"Well, I've been good with codes since I was a kid. I guess I just have a natural decoder wheel in my head." She then went off onto a tangent describing what he code was. Something about hexadecimals and digital roots. I lost her after "The code Aoi is using is..."

Thankfully, she seemed to notice that I was lost and said, "Ah, forget about it."

I grinned apologetically. "Sorry, I'm just not made for that. It makes you sound brilliant though."

"Brilliant isn't really what I'm looking for."

"Well, what _are_ you looking for?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

"No, go ahead. I'd really like to know what you want to be called."

"Oh, I dunno...something like...like...pretty-" She started to mumble and turned red. "Oh, nevermind…just forget I said anything!" Her voice made her sound like she was about to cry, which was pretty unusual for her under normal circumstances. I looked at her, and for the first time, I saw a devastated 18-year-old girl. Who knew how much hardship she had faced?

First, she had gone through the original Nonary Game, then she probably wasn't able to see either her friends or her family for a while, and finally this second Game; it must have been rough for her. I decided to take a chance.

"Sorry, Clover, but I can't do that. What little happened to pass through my..." I paused, thinking up the right word. "…thick skull...it won't come out and I want you to finish."

"R-really? You mean it?"

"Yeah. You matter to me and I'd like you to be happy."

We stood there, in the middle of the sidewalk gazing into each other's eyes. Clover kept studying mine, seeing if I was really telling the truth. Apparently she saw that I was genuine, and continued what she had left off. Or at least tried to.

"I...I want you to call me... to call me..." I could hear her voice getting higher as she started having the tension build. Finally she exhaled the breath she had been keeping in and said, "Clover." She turned her head in embarrassment.

I chuckled good-naturedly. "But I already do."

She looked at the ground shyly. "I'm sorry, Junpei…I just…I just can't do it!"

I put my hand on her shoulder reassuringly. She looked in my eyes. "It's okay; you don't have to." We stood there in silence for a few seconds, our eyes meeting, looking each other over. Finally, Clover reached up, turning her head for a kiss. I moved my head down so that my lips would intercept hers. Slowly, we went towards each other. We went our way along, moving millimeters at a time, waiting for that moment when our lips were to meet. But I turned away just before that could happen.

"I-I'm sorry, I...I just can't do this. I mean, what if...What if Akane still holds feelings for me? I have to keep that in mind. I'm sorry." Clover looked at me and I saw pain in her eyes and a tear started to form in her eye before she turned, hiding her face from mine.

"Yeah...okay...Nudgie..." I heard a long sniff, and felt terrible. But we had to move on since we had just wasted five minutes. We walked in silence, Clover in the lead. The only sound present was the clinking of our handcuffs. I would have said something, but wasn't sure what would be appropriate at a time like this.

We walked for about half an hour in a direction I was unsure of. Clover was the one with the paper, and I couldn't decipher it anyway. Finally, I could stand our silence no longer.

"Clover," I began. "I...I just wanna say...I'm sorry." If she heard my apology, she didn't show it. I decided to go on; after all, I basically had nothing to lose.

"You know, for the entire game, I was with you the most. Did you realize that?" Still, Clover was silent, though I thought I saw a nod from her. I stopped talking, actually just realizing that yes, I had been with her the most. Both the operating room and the chart room during the first part of the game, but then we were together from then on, saving her brother from the coffin, escaping through the "q" door, and then where we were now - Nevada...well, now we were in California, but they were close enough, weren't they? Or would they get mad if mis-identified? I didn't know...

I tried thinking of other things to say, but was speechless. What could I say? My natural response would be something about Akane, but I noticed that I spoke about her a lot. The sad thing was, she had used me. Also, judging by Clover's reaction, I had pushed buttons by bringing her up.

I visibly shook my head. No, Junpei. Don't think about Akane. Not now, anyway. I looked ahead of Clover, surprised to see Lotus and Ace. Ace looked the same as ever; sullen and quiet, but Lotus looked excited. When Clover saw Lotus, she pulled me, making me trip over my feet at the sudden change in speed. As we approached, Clover called out to Lotus.

"Hey! Did you get a number?"

"Yeah. I take it you guys got one too?"

"Mhmm." As Clover and Lotus continued their little banter, I saw Seven and Snake come up from behind us. Seven was looking riled up, and Snake was looking peeved about something.

"So, you two went to a bar?"

"Yeah, and Seven here got into a fight."

"What?"

"Hey, the guy was looking for trouble. I showed it to him." Seven said, trying to defend his case.

"Seven, we're in another country. You can't just get into fights."

"Tell that to the other guy."

"But this is _his_ country."

Seven grumbled unintelligibly under his breath.

"Seven, just get over it," Snake said, irritated. Seven hung his head, but a fierce look was still on his face. Clover and Lotus finished talking.

"So…Clover and I found a number," I said, starting the meeting. "Now, we need to go to the place that the safe is."

"Is it in the area?" Seven asked, totally over his earlier rage.

"What street are we on?" Snake asked. Lotus replied before I could even get my mouth open.

"We're on 18th Street."

"Oh good, we aren't too far. The safe is two blocks that way." He pointed to the building next to us. The others looked at me, since I was leader.

"Hhh, fine. Let's just get to the nearest intersection, we'll turn there." We must have looked pretty silly to the Americans in sight, but I pretended not to notice and started walking to our freedom...

We got lost once. It was my fault, so I was pretty red in the face when I realized I had led the team into lost territory. We quickly turned around, heading for sure in the right direction. When our parade finally came to a halt, we were in front of an apartment building.

"Is this the right place?" Lotus wondered aloud.

"This is where the note said to be, isn't it?" Hongou said to her, startling all of us.

"Yeah, but still, it doesn't seem like a great place to put a safe." Lotus said, not startled at all. When she saw our startled looks, she quickly explained. "I took the tape off. I didn't want us to seem too out of place. Besides, he's great company."

"So is Lou," I said under my breath. I looked at Clover and saw she had made that look again. I could tell _exactly_ what she was thinking. "Clover, no!"

"D'aww..."

The rest of the team looked at us strangely.

"She wants to kill one of my favorite pets," I explained. "It's a giant bedbug named Lou. She wants to kill it with fire." Clover's eyes showed a visible flame when I said that, and I shrunk back a little. Lotus nodded.

"I think I understand that feeling."

Snake, who had been silent for all this time, spoke up.

"Junpei, that's as ridiculous as kicking someone in the back of the face. It's simply not anatomically possible."

"Quiet," I hissed at him. He shrugged.

"C'mon guys, let's get going. I don't think I can be chained up to this smart-alec any longer." Seven started tugging on his handcuffs, pulling Snakes arm with it. The rest of the team looked at me, waiting my move. I shrugged and nudged at the door with my head. Lotus was the first to take off towards the door; Hongou had no choice but to follow. Snake and Seven moved on as well. Clover and I were left. I turned to her.

"Don't listen to him. Lou would be happy to see you; I'm sure...As long as you don't try to kill him..."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go." She walked to the door, forcing me to follow her. We walked in the doors to find the others stopped at the side of some stairs.

"It's here." Lotus said to us.

"Okay. So which group has the first number?"

"Uh...good question."

We discussed who would go first. There was a bit of argument until Hongou suggested that the card holders looked at the cards to see if something was there. Apparently it said that the order was 999. This was extremely unhelpful, as all of the groups' member numbers were 9, making us 9, 9 and 9. However, there was another clue; Lotus and Hongou went first.

They entered their number, and moved aside for the next group. The two groups rock paper, scissored, and Clover and I won. We entered our number—38-and moved to the side to allow Seven and Snake to enter their numbers. Nothing happened.

"Well, there's only one thing left to do," I said. "Lotus, Seven, Clover. That's what we're gonna do next…and it should work...in theory."

We tried it. Something clicked and the door swung open, revealing keys and a folder. Seven dashed towards the keys, unlocking he and Snake first, then moved to me and a very sad looking Clover. I had just gotten the cuff off and was rubbing my sore wrist when a cuff slapped closed around my wrist again. I looked at Clover who was grinning maniacally. I looked at her, scared.

"Don't worry Junpei, She just wants to have fun with you..." Seven said, with a joking undertone.

"That's what I'm worried about!"

* * *

><p><strong>Junpei: Eheh. That was creepy<strong>

**Me: Yeah...just don't think of ending 4.**

**Junpei: ;A; ...Too late.**

**Clover: COME HERE SWEETIE!**

**Junpei: Gotta dash!**

**Me: Me too. Later guys! And please review, it does wonders.**


	8. Leaving

I slowly made my way back to a wall, Clover following me every step of the way. That look of hers...I felt I had seen it before, in Building Q. However, I couldn't place where, though I saw an imaginary axe in her hand as she approached. But her eyes said different things.

Her creepy looking face vanished and she turned towards a hallway, away from the others. She pulled me against my will towards the hall. Before I was sucked all the way in I yelled "Seven, keep the key safe!" I didn't hear his answer. Clover pulled me further and further into the hallway. Finally she stopped.

"Okay, this has to do with earlier." She said, looking into my eyes. She took a breath, then continued.

"Junpei! Akane's not coming back for you! That's a stupid childhood crush you still have! Akane harbors no feelings at all for you anymore — if she ever did at one point. Now look, I'm here, and I'm now, but Akane is in the past! I've listened to you talk about Akane until the cows came home — and I've been patient — but this is stopping now!" I looked down at her, she looked angry, her face all red. But then she softened, realized what she had said, and blushed, her face darkening. I was stunned.

"You...You're right. I'm sorry, Akane _is_ in the past. But that doesn't mean I still don't want to find her! Now come here, you!" I said playfully, then quickly put my lips on hers. For a second it didn't register with her, but when it did, she put her free arm around my neck, and we kissed for a few minutes. We pulled away, our hearts fluttering, wanting a little more.

"D'aawwww."

"ACK! Lotus!"

"What? It's not just me."

I turned around to see the entire group staring at us. Even Snake was present.

"Junpei..."

"Yes, Snake?"

"If you don't take care of my sister...I'm going to kick you in the back of the face. And if she gets pregnant," He paused for effect. "If she gets pregnant, I'm gonna take an axe to your -"

"Snake, I think he gets it." Seven said, interrupting. I nodded quickly in response, blushing. Suddenly, I felt like I wanted out of these cuffs.

"Seven, did you keep the keys?"

"Uuuum..."

"SEVEN!"

"Yeah, they're right here," He said pulling the keys out of his pocket. "Jeez, man. It's not like she's gonna kill you or somethin'."

"Dude, you don't even know," I murmured as he unlocked the cuffs. I rubbed my wrist; Clover had closed the cuff _tight_! There was a small silence as no one knew exactly what to do.

"So, we actually do have our passports, right?" I asked. Seven, Lotus and Ace nodded. "Cool, let's get on our way then." We shuffled out the door, startling a young couple about to enter in the building. We walked down the side walk for a bit, our troupe looking quite out of place on the basically empty sidewalk.

"Seven," I said, suddenly unsure of what to do. "Was there a note in the safe of where to go?"  
>"Uh..." Seven furiously dug through his pockets, as if trying to find something, which I assumed was the paper. After fiddling around for at least a minute, he pulled a folded paper out of his front pocket.<p>

"Here," He said, handing it to me. I took it and unfolded it.

"Go 3 blocks west and 4 blocks south. There is a car waiting for you.

I seriously have no idea why I'm giving you all these things. Maybe I'm partially nice after all. Nah…that would never happen. See you later losers.

Love, Santa."

"Interesting note."

"Yeah, but hey, we have another vehicle..."

"True. Speaking of...let's go!"

I started jogging down the empty sidewalk. I heard some footsteps falling into rhythm behind me, as well as an odd, heavy sounding pair that were very irregular. I guessed it was Seven. However, I wanted to get to the car more than I cared about Seven lagging behind, so I kept pushing on.

We finally got to the car. We had left Seven and Ace behind and would come back for them, which we proceeded to now. Well, as soon as we could figure out a driver, anyway.

"I don't see why we have to collect him anyway...he's such a drag."

"Clover, how would you feel if we just left you here?"

Clover was silent, pondering my question.

"Clover, Seven would like to go home too, you know."

Clover looked at Lotus, then turned to me.

"Guys...I _was_ just kidding."

I looked at Lotus.

"Yeah, whatever," I said, to Clover, then got in the driver's seat. I've always wanted to drive. Over in

Japan it's usually take a bus, ride a bike or walk, and since I'm pretty close to the university I go to, I just ride my bike. This, though, this would be fun. The others got into the car, a nice, sleek looking 65 passenger vehicle. I had no idea how we were gonna get Seven in here, though I figured we'd manage.

I turned the engine over and put the car into Drive. A high pitched squeal pierced our eardrums as I released the brake.

"Take the Parking Brake off, you dumb-ass!"

I jammed the brakes back on, and looked for anything that might resemble anything that might help relieve us of the annoying squeal.

"I'm trying, Lotus, I'm trying!"

Trying to give me clues, Lotus unsuccessfully tried telling me where I might find a Parking Brake release. Eventually I put the car into park, where Lotus got out of the car and opened the door, to release an obvious lever I had somehow missed. She huffed as she got back in her seat.

"Sorry," I said, meekly, putting the car back into Drive. I slowly pulled out, unsure of how the gas pedal worked at this current point in time. I slowly pushed on the pedal, trying to ease into the speed limit, which happened to be 25 MPH. As I came up to a stop sign, I tried easing on the brake; too hard, too soon. Our bodies convulsed with the car as I went into a loop of gas-brake-gas-brake.

Eventually we got to the stop sign. Clover fixed her hair as Lotus huffed again.

"This is my first time driving?" I offered.

"And it's your last," came Lotus' reply.

"Just back to Seven and Ace?"

"If we can survive, I guess I can live with it."

"Snake? You're...okay with this?" Clover asked in shock.

"Well, he's driving better than I would."

As this was going on I had kept driving, doing better this time, as opposed to just seconds before. Apparently I was doing such a great job; they hadn't noticed that I had started going again. The fact that the inside of the car was quiet helped too.

"Um, guys? Junpei's driving the car really well now! I can't believe it!"

"Hey! Clover...you jerk."

Clover giggled in delight. Another stop sign was approaching. Crap. I decided to take a different approach. I released the gas, slowing the car down without the further acceleration, and then slowly started pressing on the brakes. As the car approached the stop sign, I came to a gentle halt. The girls, the only ones able to see, cheered at not having to head-bang to the extreme.

We reached the two we had left behind; Seven was still out of breath. I handed the keys to Lotus.

"That was enough for me, thanks. You drive," I said, getting into the back seat. The rest of us got situated in our normal-ish spots. It was the most comfortable seating arrangement, so we took it. As we started leaving the city, I reflected over what had happened over just the past couple of days. It's just amazing how much can fit in such a small amount of time.

I was brought out of dreamland by the buzzing in my pocket. I pulled out the cell phone, little doubt appearing in my mind of who it was.

"Thanks for the car," I said, bringing the phone to my ear.

"Jumpy!"

"A-Akane? Why...why are you calling me? And why are you whispering?"

"Jumpy, I'm sorry, I'll explain later. Look, Aoi is currently working out other business, so I can call you. Jumpy, I lied. I'm sorry for all I put you through in Building Q. I really do care about you. To prove it, I'll try to keep Aoi in Sacramento for as long as I can. Please, I want to see you again!"

"I'll do my best," I said, unsure if Akane was tricking me or not. She was toying with my emotions, making it hard to hear if she really was being sincere or not. "Thanks Akane. I'd better go now. We'll be there as soon as possible. Later!"

I hung up before she could reply. I slipped the phone into my pocket, seeing a concerned Clover in the corner of my eye. I gave her a reassuring smile.

"What'd she want?" she asked, in a disappointed tone.

"I dunno." I said, truthfully.

"Okay..."

We sat in silence, no noise whatsoever. A minute later we left a sign. Goodbye, Fair Oaks.

* * *

><p><strong>Me: I am REALLY sorry! I should have had this done a month ago. Please forgive me!<strong>

**Clover: Dude, they're looking for quality. They don't really care how long it takes, just as long as it's good and ends well.**

**Me: Okay, I guess I feel a little better..though I'm not too good with endings... ^_^"**

**Junpei: Dude, you're worse than me!**

**Me: ^_^""**

**Lotus: Please review as we beat the living snot out of Dane. Have a great day!**

**Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (ouch)**


	9. Hardships

After an hour in the car, I fell asleep; the last couple of days had been exhausting. when I had waken from a half hour nap, I found that Clover had thought so too; when I had fallen asleep, she had laid her head on my shoulder, her awesome pillow being of use once more. I was jealous, as I only had the car window. But I felt I slept well enough. I slowly stroked Clover's head, feeling her cute, puffy hair until I reached the end, then retracted my hand to do it again. And again. And...again. Eventually it got to the point that I couldn't _stop, _her hair feeling amazing on my hand.

"Stop it, Nudgy," she mumbled, not fully awake.

"Sorry."

I took my hand away and awkwardly placed it in my lap. Clover moved her head into a more comfortable position on my shoulder, then went back to sleep. I was bored and wasn't sure what to do. Without warning, the car turned into a rest stop area. Lotus looked back at us.

"Sorry, I had to go."

She parked and ran into the building. I got out as well, careful to put Clover into a comfortable position on the seat. I walked over to a vending machine, knowing full well I couldn't buy anything, even if I wanted something. I didn't really want anything, it was mainly to kill time. I heard Seven take Hongou out of the trunk and there was some mumbling. A few seconds later I heard Snake behind me.

"Junpei."

"Snake."

I turned around.

"What's up?"

"Junpei, there's something going on between you and Clover."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed. Look man, she's the one who started it."

Snake took a step back.

"Well, I'm not quite sure about you yet. I know we've been through a lot, but I don't feel I know you well enough yet. For now, just try to keep your distance from her."

I sighed.

"Snake, we're in a small car. Besides, she's 18, shouldn't she be able to make her own decisions?"

"Her age is also part of the problem, Junpei. You're 21, she's 18."

"Snake, that's three years! Three years is not that big of a difference. Heck, my parents are seven years apart!"

"Those were different times."

"Like hell they were."

"Junpei, please. Just stay away from her for a while."

"How can I? The three of us are in the same backseat and you don't want Seven in the back."

"I'll sit in the middle, she and I will switch sides."

"Snake, I think you're being ridiculous."

"Maybe, but it'll make me feel better."

I huffed, and shook my head, giving in.

"Fine. But you know you'll only let us get closer in the future, right? I believe I can pass your standards."

"Well, you seem like a good guy, Junpei. However, Nijisaki also seemed helpful. Hongou seemed helpful at first as well. Santa seemed like a good guy, but he was Zero's helper. And..." Snake paused, unsure if he wanted to take this route. "Akane, she seemed to be good, but she was Zero. As you can see, even from the past 72 hours, people have pretended to be what they are not. I really hope that you are who you say you are, and act like you usually do, but I still don't feel trusting enough."

"Fair enough."

I turned to walk away.

"And Junpei...I heard you on the phone earlier. I know what Akane said."

"And do you believe her?"

"No."

"Yeah, me either. But I don't feel I can take the chance."

"Well, I'd better go position Clover for the new seating arrangements. Thanks for understanding, Jumpy."  
>I shuddered at his use of Akane's nickname.<p>

"Please, use 'Junpei,' It hurts less."

"I understand."

Snake walked towards the car and began to move Clover around. I stayed by the vending machine, confused and just a bit hurt.

_I understand where he's coming from, but we've been through so much. You would have thought that he would approve. Oh well, the only thing I _can _do is make sure he approves. I'll just have to be myself._

I walked over to the restrooms myself and went inside.

I walked outside. Seven, Lotus and Snake were waiting outside the car. Lotus spoke.

"You ready to go?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Let's go then."

We climbed in and began part two of the trip to Sacramento.

**Me: Aw man, I'm almost done with this fic!**

**Clover: Really?**

**Me: Yeah, I was planning on having 10 chapters. This is chapter 8.**

**Clover: Aw man.**

**Me: Yeah, I'm gonna miss you guys.**

**Junpei: I won't miss you. You write a _terrible_ version of me.**

**Me: Whatever. Anyway, I know this is a little short, but please review and stuff! Chapter 9 is going to be a whole lot longer and better, trust me!**


	10. The Airport

We arrived in Sacramento. The trip there had been pretty boring-no calls, no conversation, no anything. Well, nothing except silence. There was no shortage of silence on the trip. I guess we just had nothing to say. Everything had been said already. Clover had woken up halfway there. She noticed the different seating arrangements, but said nothing. I guessed that she would talk to Snake about that later.

The city ominously loomed in front of us, looking daunting yet inviting. I shuddered at the sight. We were finally here, finally one stop from home. We had everything we needed; money, passports and ourselves, but still, I felt something was missing. What was missing, I didn't know yet, but I felt like I would figure it out soon.

We stopped at a gas station just inside the city. Inside, I grabbed a Dr. Pepper, noticing a green bottle labeled "Mountain Dew." We had it in Japan, of course, but it was hard to get outside big cities. Curious, I grabbed a bottle and went to the checkout.  
>The cashier looked indifferent, not caring about me or my items. I coughed and she noticed me.<p>

"Oh hey. This everything?"

"S-sorry?"

"Is this it?"

"Aaaaaa... Yes."

She scanned the items.

"$2.75"

I handed her the money.

"Thanks hon."

Baffled, I walked out of the store. Clover was out there, Snake nowhere to be seen. Excited, I saw my chance to talk to her.

"Hey."

"Nudgie, you shouldn't be here."

"I know."

"Then stay away." A tear came to her eye. I took a step closer.

"Clover..." I said in a hopefully reassuring voice.

"Nudgy, you know it's not right. Snake will be mad at you if we talk without him. Just stay away. Go back inside...something!"

I stayed silent, not sure exactly what to do. Slowly I turned and started heading back to the building. There was a bench outside that I sat on. I opened my Dr. Pepper and took a swig. It wasn't as sweet as it usually was, and I knew why. Nothing was the same without Clover. I put my bottles on the ground by my feet and held my face in my hands, my elbows on my knees. My hands were still wet and cold from the bottles of soda I had just put down.

I wasn't at all sure what to do. Snake would like it if I stayed away from his sister for a bit, but both Clover and I wanted to be together. Stupid ethics and morals! They were keeping the two of us apart! Well, I guess I couldn't blame him. If I were in his situation I guess I would do the same thing. But why did things have to not work out how _I_wanted them to work out? Life was just so frustrating!

I kept pondering all these things. It hurt, it really did. First Akane's betrayal of my trust...and my love...now Snake wondering what my intentions with his sister are and if I'm trustworthy or not. Too many heartbreaking things, one after another. I wondered if one could die from heartbreak. I figured I'd ask Lotus later. She'd probably know.

I heard some talking from behind me. Turning around, I saw Seven and Lotus walking towards the vehicle. Cool, I was able to join them, and maybe I could say a few things to Clover while I was at it.

I walked over, and stood next to them, staying silent.

"Oh hey, Junpei."

"Hi, Lotus."

"What's going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how are you doing?"

I was silent for a minute.

"I'm doing fine." I said, turning towards the car.

"Junpei..."

"What?" I snapped at Lotus.

"It's obvious you're not doing fine. What's up?"

As if to save me, Snake got out of the bathroom.

"It's nothing. Snake's coming, so let's go."

"O-okay then..."

We all got into the car; Clover and I were still separated by the skinny, prince-clad figure. I didn't feel like talking at the moment, so I stayed quiet. The others seemed to have nothing to say as well.

I finished my Dr. Pepper and looked at the green bottle in my hand. I guess it was the moment of truth. I unscrewed the top, making a hissing sound of releasing CO2. Snake looked over.

"What's that?"

"Some Mountain Dew."

"Ah." He turned back to looking forward. I never knew what went on in that guy's brain. I took a swig. It was a little sweet, but it was okay. I wouldn't call it the best soft drink in the world, but it was certainly good enough to buy again.

I took another drink then screwed the cap back on. A giant building passed as I put the bottle on the floor, between my feet.

"Lotus, are we close to the airport?"

"I would think so."

"Good." I leaned my head on the window, impatient. There was nothing to do in this car. My back felt restless. I wanted to move. I wanted to get home. This whole stupid trip…it was annoying. It was a waste of my time, that's what it was. Nothing good had happened on this trip. Okay, I got to meet Akane again, and I got to find Clover. And there were the other cool people I met. I guess it wasn't too bad. But nothing seemed to be going right at the moment.

Akane was taken from me, and now Clover was. Lotus was _way_ too old for me, and the rest were guys. Wait...this wasn't a speed dating session...why I was I so centered around girls? I mean seriously, 51% of the population is female. But still, I felt like I had a special bond with these two.  
>Something else was bothering me as well. Why had Akane called me? What were her motives? Did she really still like me? Would she seriously try to help me? I guess there was only one way to find out; I'd have to see for myself.<p>

We pulled into the airport parking lot as I got another call.

"Hello?"

"Jumpy, it's me. We're at the airport."

"So are we."

"Good. I'll try to keep Aoi at bay until you get here. We're going to The Narita Airport, one way, no layovers. You should have enough to buy the tickets-I made sure of that."

"Thanks."

I hung up. Maybe she wasn't as bad as her brother. The car was stopped in a parking space. I looked at the others.

"Well, should we go in?"

"Yeah, I guess," came Seven's reply.

We all got out, and Seven dragged Hongou out of the trunk and unbound him.

"Does everyone have their passports?" They all nodded. "Alright, let's go in!"

We walked into the airport, drawing a few looks from people. We did kinda smell...I mean, we hadn't bathed in a few days. It really stunk. Literally. _Don't worry about it, Junpei,_I thought to myself. We walked up to the counter. I was handed the money, then looked at the attendant behind the desk.

"Seven tickets to Narita, please."

"Alright. Any luggage?"

I resisted the urge to say "Hongou," and shook my head. A number flashed on the screen. I flipped through the money and handed it to the girl. She handed us our tickets.

"Here you go. Have a nice flight."

"Thank you."  
>We walked to the gates, looking for the one that would get us to the plane that would get us home. Gate 372.<p>

I spotted a blue sweater underneath the sign. Akane. I bolted to her, wanting to see her again. Confused, the others followed. Finally, I reached her.

"Hello Jumpy."

The voice was cold, ruthless.

"A-akane?"

"Hello Junpei. Welcome to the airport."

"What's goin' on?" Seven asked.

"Oh, nothing. You just played into our trap."

"Dammit. I thought she was up to no good."

"You should have trusted your instinct. Take 'em away boys."

Some big, heavyset guys came out and grabbed us.

"You know where to take them."

The thugs nodded and started dragging us away.

"Oh, wait. I'll take Hongou off your hands. You don't mind if I get the credit for bringing him in, do you?" He laughed as Hongou was brought to him.

"You bastard! I'll get you!" I yelled as we were pulled around a corner. Then I was knocked out.

* * *

><p><strong>Me: Dun, dun, dun!<strong>  
><strong>Akane: You're an idiot Junpei. You thought I'd still love you after all this time?<strong>  
><strong>Junpei: Well, yeah...it happens in anime and manga all the time!<strong>  
><strong>Akane:...This is real life. Grow up.<strong>  
><strong>Junpei: I wish I had never saved you.<strong>  
><strong>Me: Woah! Calm down you two! Anyway...please review! ^_^<strong>  
><strong>Clover: Nudgy, do you still like me? Or do you like June again?<strong>  
><strong>Junpei:...no comment...<strong>


	11. Finally Home Again

I awoke, leaning against a wall in a dark room. I looked around but couldn't see the others. That worried me. I tried to get up, but found my hands shackled behind my back, chained to either the wall or the floor. I looked behind me. It was the floor. Great.

I waited for my eyes to get 100% used to the darkness, then looked around for anything I could use to get free. The room was devoid of anything I could use. I checked how loose the shackle was. It was sorta loose; maybe I could get it off.

I took my left hand and put it on the right shackle, then pulled my right hand to try to get it through the metal ring. It dug into my skin. I winced, but pulled harder, grunting at the force I was exerting. Finally the pain became unbearable and I stopped. A ring of pain danced around my hand. I was afraid to look to see if there was any bleeding.

I retained my composure and pulled again. This time the ring moved a little but more. I took a small, half second break, then pulled again. It was hung up on my index finger knuckle. I moved it enough to get it out of the way and pulled harder. Finally it slipped off, my hand pulsating. I brought it to my face and and saw two red rings decorating my hand. I felt the first one, feeling the valley the metal had left in my hand. My thumb knuckle was bleeding. But I had one more shackle to worry about before I could worry about the pain.

I put my right hand over my left shackle, shaking-knowing I was probably going to hurt myself again. I pulled quickly to get my mind off of that train of thought. The pain shot through my arm. I bit my lip to deal with the pain as I pulled harder and harder. I stopped breathing to give a little more effort to pushing. When my lungs burned, I stopped and took a breath. This one was tighter, oddly enough. Quickly, I pulled again, trying to make my left hand as small as I could possibly get it. After a few minutes of pulling, it slid off. I panted as a sweat drop rolled down the side of my face.

Free of both shackles, I rubbed my now sore wrists and hands, trying to circulate the blood. I thought some more while doing so. Akane had betrayed me again. Why had I fallen for that again?! I should have known something was up. Stupid! And now the others were probably in danger...All because of me. I grimaced as I got up to go find the others.

I went out the door opposite of where I was shackled and found myself in a hallway just a little lighter than before. It was filled with metal and looked like the inside of ships from World War 2. The grating under my feet clanged as I walked over it. It was a little warm and humid, and some sweat dripped down my nose. Man, where were the others? The only other door was opposite the hallway, so I walked over there.

I opened the door and gasped. In the middle of the room were four tubes. Each tube held one person. Tube one had Snake, tube two contained Clover, tube 3 held Lotus, and tube four contained Seven.

A voice drifted in the room from a speaker. "The waters rises one foot every 10 minutes. You have one hour until the tallest one drowns. Choose who you save first very wisely." The voice cackled, then the speaker went silent. There was a hum and water appeared in the tubes, rising very slowly from the ground up.

"Shoot!"

I looked around and saw 4 doors, one behind each tube. I ran to the first two, the ones containing Clover and Snake, then stopped. Would it be better to save Clover or Snake first? Which would get me "brownie points" from Snake? I wasn't completely sure, until I realized that saving Clover would be the best option. Two people with eyes would be better than one with and one without.

I opened Clover's door to find a room similar to room behind Door 7, the laboratory. The one where I gave Clover the bookmark. The one where I realized I loved her and cared for her.

The room had an operating table in the middle, complete with a mannequin. A gurney with a bumpy sheet was in the corner, and I had the feeling I knew what was under it. I walked over and pulled the sheet off. It was a female mannequin. I knew it. I slid the gurney to the side of the operating table and moved all the parts except for the heart and the right arm. I waited.

After several seconds of no sound, I realized that I had done it wrong. I quickly replaced all of the pieces I had moved, then looked for clues in the room. A blank piece of paper was all I found. I groaned at the ceiling in desperation. But then I saw something and gasped.

I got to a better vantage point...on the ground, with my feet towards the wall opposite the door...and saw a giant "46" painted on the ceiling. I got up and looked on the operating table for a scale. When I found it, the needle was at 67. Great, I had to move 21 kilos…what could be 21 kilos?. I went back to the gurney and switched the torsos. Nothing. I looked at the scale. Forty-nine.

What was about 3 kilograms? The head? I switched the heads, then looked at the scale again. The needle was just over 47, close to 47 ½. Hmm...Without thinking, I then switched the hearts. I heard a click. SUCCESS! I bent down and opened a cabinet underneath the operating table. Inside was a lever. I pulled it, then walked to the door and opened it.

Clover was standing where she had been, soaking in water from the knees down. The floor was wet from the water that had dispersed when the tube was lifted. She ran to me when she saw me and gave me a big hug.

"Thank you Nudgy!"

I hugged her back. "Anything for you."

She kissed me then said, "I'm gonna save my brother now. You save Lotus. Seven's the tallest, so we don't have to worry about him as much as we would Lotus."

I nodded. "Sounds good."

Clover ran over to her brother's door and ran in. I saw the familiar scene of the cabin door of the room after Door 5 and realized she had never been in there before. But she was smart; she'd be able to figure out the puzzle in no time. I hoped anyway. I turned and ran to Lotus's door. Time was not of the essence.

I opened the door to find the room after Door 4. A kitchen was in front of me. I knew that the freezer would not be a part of the puzzle, if there _was_a freezer, so I looked at the cabinet that had originally held the key to get out.

There was a number lock on the cabinet, and I pressed "43." Nothing. Of course, they'd have to change it a little to keep it interesting. I looked at the ceiling. No clue there. I looked at the counter. There were stacks of plates. I moved them to see if there was a note under there. Nothing. I looked around for a piece of chicken that may have a note. No dice. Finally, I looked in a drawer. There was a note there.

"B+11+D." Ah jeez. Well, B was 12, 11 was...I paused, thinking for a moment. That's right, 11 was 17, and D was...D was...14. I quickly calculated 12, 17 and 13, and got "43."That wasn't right, I had just tried that! Maybe I had the numbers wrong. I rechecked the numbers. B was 12, 11 was 17, and D was...13. It was 13, not 14. I put "42" into the number lock, and I heard a click. I flung the door open and pulled the lever. I then walked out of the room, feeling pretty proud of myself.

I walked out and found Lotus and Snake free.

"Where's Clover?"

"She went to save Seven."

"Oh."

A few seconds later, a low hum was heard. We looked at Seven and saw the glass tube he was in slowly sink into the ground, the water that was originally in his tube pouring out over the rim. His clothes up to the center of his chest were soaked with water. "Jeez, I thought I was gonna die."

"You're just a big wuss."

Clover stepped out from behind Seven, closing the door behind her.

"That's it, I'm gonna get you!"  
>I broke up the fight. "Guys, we have a plane to catch. You want to get home, don't you?"<p>

The two looked at the floor; it was a definite yes.

"Then let's go. We have to find Ace, too. Keep it in your heads that we have no time for fighting!"

We walked over to the last door, which hopefully lead to our freedom. It did, and we stepped into a room full of people oblivious of the life or death situation we were just in. I looked at the clock and then at our tickets. We had a half hour until our plane left. That was more than enough time. Well, assuming Aoi had left us a note. Come to think of it, I never saw a note at all. Looked like it was time to call him.

I pulled the phone out of my pocket and pressed 2-talk. The phone rang a few times, then a message sounded. "We're sorry, but the phone associated with this number is no longer connected."

What the hell? I pressed end and redialed, hoping it was a joke.

"This is Aoi."

"Aoi! Goddammit, what the hell was that?!"

"What was what?"

"I know you know!"

"Know what?"

"The "this number is no longer in service crap you somehow pulled."

"Oh, you liked that, huh?

"No, you bastard, I hated it!"

"Sheesh, settle down there, man. Now, why'd you call?"

"Cause I wanna know where Hongou is."

"He's right here with me. I figure I'd like to take the credit of turning him in."

"You bastard."

"My, my; you're feisty today, aren't you? Well, we're about to board. You'd better hurry, I think you guys are on this plane too."

"You little bastard."

He seemed to shrug through the phone. "Bye Jumpy. Hahahahaha!"

He hung up and I turned to the others. "We have a plane to catch," I said, dejectedly. "Come on, let's go." We slowly walked to our gate, handed our tickets to the flight attendant and walked on to our final path to freedom.

Hours later, we landed in Narita. We had no luggage so it was simple to get out of the plane, go through customs, and finally step back into our native land. The silence both welcomed and shocked us. It was beautiful, but at the same time, sad. A tear dripped down my cheek. I wiped it away, then looked at the others.

"We're home."

"And we're all alive, too."

I turned to Lotus. "What, you thought I wouldn't be able to get us home?"

She put her hand on her chest and laughed. "No, it's not like that at all. It's just that we could have had the same fate as Nijisaki."

"Oh, right. But…I heard a voice back in Building Q. It said that there was no detonator, and that we didn't have bombs in our bodies."

"So we were played?!"

I turned to Seven, who was pretty riled up at the new-found fact that we had jumped through hoops in order to not die from imaginary bombs. "Yeah, I guess so." I turned and faced the city. "Anyway, this is goodbye. Thanks for the trip; I had fun. Maybe...maybe I'll see you guys around." I turned and walked away.

"Nudgie! Wait!"

I stopped and turned, only to be tackled by Clover. I saw a glimmer behind her, and I knew it was a tear that was falling to the ground.

She held me for a few minutes, her face in my chest. I slid my arms around her and held her back. Snake came up to me.

"Junpei, I heard that you saved Clover first in the room with the water tubes. That was a risky move, but I do see why you did it. I'm starting to rethink that you were just faking being good. I won't let you go out with my sister just yet, but I think I would like to see you more. Let's take a walk and plan things out."

"Okay, Snake." I sat up and brought Clover up with me. "Come on, Clover. It's gonna be alright." She removed her head from my chest, nodded, and then kissed me. I kissed her back. When we pulled away, Lotus and Seven stood in the back, looking at us in a knowing manner.

I got up and helped Clover get to her feet.

"Alright Snake. Now...where do we begin?"

"How about where you live."

"I live…" As soon as I said that, I received a call. "Oh, excuse me." I walked away a small distance and answered.

"Hello?"

A whisper came through the receiver. "Hey Jumpy. We just turned Hongou in."

"Oh really? That's great. Where do I come in?"

"Well, nowhere, really….I just…I just wanted to call you. I wanted to say….I…." She paused for the longest time, then laughed. "I love you. I still love you. I'm sorry I put you through all of that, and I want to apologize. Maybe we could…." I could hear her start to cry. "Maybe we could see each other again, and maybe…maybe we could go out? I mean, you were the one who saved me after all, I owe my life to you."

I turned to look at Clover and Snake, then turned back to the phone. "Tell you what….maybe we can do lunch…"

-  
><strong>Me: Thank you very much. This was an amazing story to write, and I had quite a bit of fun writing it.<strong>

**June: I STILL LOVE MY JUMPY!**

**Junpei: You're a little late, June. But thanks, I appreciate the love.**

**June: *Hugs Junpei***

**Junpei: Thanks-*gets kissed by June***

**Clover: GET OFF OF HIM! He's mine now, you hear?**

**Snake: Actually, he's not yours just yet.**

**Me: Well, review. Thanks for sticking with me, and if anyone wants to do a sequel to this, they are free to do so, as long as you give me credit. Also, give me a link to the story; I wanna read it! So anyway, sayonara!**

**EDIT: I want to thank all my readers for writing those splendid reviews. I went back and made the ending a little more definitive, and even answered one question. I think all the harem anime I've been watching lately has come to my brain, and that's why this ends in the way it does. I keep getting these "Clover for life!" messages, and they clash with the "June all the way" messages. I, myself, have a hard time picking between the two, as both have really good reasons for being with Junpei, so I think this is the best way for me to end it for both you fans and myself.**


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